Kim Jong Un urges defining S. Korea as primary foe in its constitution

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has embarked on a risky gamble of attempting direct negotiations for the recognition of a nuclear state with the next U.S. administration and initiating a complete rupture of dialogue with South Korea, considering the potential return of former U.S. President Donald Trump to power.

According to North Korean media on Tuesday, Kim instructed to fundamentally change inter-Korean relations by labeling the South as an "immutable primary enemy" in the North Korean constitution and abolishing organizations for inter-Korean relations such as the National Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland (CPRF). On the same day, Trump gained momentum by winning the first caucus in Iowa, a key event for selecting the Republican presidential candidate.

The South Korean government views Kim as proclaiming a new strategy based on close ties with Russia and China. "Kim Jong Un seems to assess that there is a high possibility of Donald Trump coming to power in the U.S. presidential election in November,” a South Korean government said. "In this case, Kim aims to try a U.S.-North Korea deal where a freeze on North Korean nuclear activities and lifting of sanctions negotiations could be possible, explicitly excluding the Yoon Suk Yeol administration from this deal."

"As there is a high likelihood of a congruent relationship between Trump and Kim, if Trump is elected, it will pose the biggest challenge to the Yoon administration's North Korea and foreign policies," another official said. The South Korean government interprets Kim, who defines South Korea as the main enemy and even hints at the possibility of war, as attempting to shift responsibility for the military tension on the Korean Peninsula to the current administration as the April general elections approach to trigger internal discords within the South.

"The North Korean regime has effectively acknowledged being an anti-national and anti-historical group,” said President Yoon Suk Yeol during a national security meeting on the same day. “The threat of 'war or peace' coercion does not work anymore." A presidential official explained that this was a message that Kim Jong Un's psychological warfare would not sway the South.


Wan-Jun Yun zeitung@donga.com